


Manthem

by ShimmerShadows



Category: Anthem - Ayn Rand
Genre: Angst, Dubious Consent, Dystopia, M/M, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 15:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16767886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimmerShadows/pseuds/ShimmerShadows
Summary: Equality 7-2521 wants to break his curse that keeps him bound to a life he can't enjoy.





	Manthem

It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. The laws that say we may not have intercourse unless we are in the Palace of Mating, and only for procreation. May we be forgiven!  
  
But this is not the only sin upon us. We have committed a greater crime, and for this crime there is no name. What punishment awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it.  
  
It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air. Nothing moves in this tunnel save our hand on the paper. We are alone here under the earth. It is a fearful word, alone. The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil. But we have broken many laws. And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to see only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us the shadow of our one head.  
  
Our name is Equality 7-2521. We are twenty-one years old. We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall. There are even fewer with toned abs, large hands, a long mane of hair than seems impossible to tame. Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said:  
  
"There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers. Further, you shame your brothers with your handsome looks." But we cannot change our bones nor our body.  
  
We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. Sexual. Animal. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that we know and do not resist.  
  
We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike. Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted:  
  
"WE ARE ONE IN ALL AND ALL IN ONE.  
WE ARE A SINGLE BODY.  
THERE ARE NO MEN BUT ONLY THE GREAT WE,  
ONE, INDIVISIBLE AND FOREVER."

We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not as we run our hands over our body at night.  
  
All men are good and wise. It is only we, Equality 7-2521, we alone who were born with a curse. For we are not like our brothers. And as we look back upon our life, we see that it has ever been thus and that it has brought us step by step to our last, supreme transgression, our crime of crimes hidden here under the ground.  
  
We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those early years in the Home of the Students. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us.  
  
So we fought against this curse. We tried to push aside the desire for flesh, but we always craved it. Somehow the Teachers knew that. And we were lashed more often than all the other children.  
  
The Teachers were just, for they had been appointed by the Councils, and the Councils are the voice of all justice, for they are the voice of all men. And if sometimes, in the secret darkness of our heart, we regret that which befell us on our fifteenth birthday, we know that it was through our own guilt. We had broken a law, for we had not paid heed to the words of our Teachers. The Teachers had said to us all:  
  
"You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little minds. And if you are not needed by your brother man, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies."  
  
We knew this well, in the years of our childhood, but our curse broke our will. We were guilty and we confess it here: we were guilty of the great Transgression of Preference. We preferred some bodies and some faces to the others. We did not listen well to the history of all the Councils elected since the Great Rebirth. But, as we grew older, we knew we were different.  
  
We think that there are mysteries in the sky and under the water and in the plants which grow. But the Council of Scholars has said that there are no mysteries, and the Council of Scholars knows all things. And we learned much from our Teachers.  
  
So we wished to be sent to the Home of the Scholars. We wished it so much that our hands trembled under the blankets in the night, our hands on our erect member, and we bit our arm to stop that other pain which we could not endure. It was evil and we dared not face our brothers in the morning. For men may wish nothing for themselves.

The Council of Vocations came on the first day of spring, and they sat in the great hall. And we who were fifteen and all the Teachers came into the great hall. And the Council of Vocations sat on a high dais, and they had but two words to speak to each of the Students. They called the Students' names, and when the Students stepped before them, one after another, the Council said: "Carpenter" or "Doctor" or "Cook" or "Leader." Then each Student raised their right arm and said: "The will of our brothers be done."  
  
So we awaited our turn in the great hall and then we heard the Council of Vocations call our name: "Equality 7-2521." We walked to the dais, and our legs did not tremble, and we looked up at the Council. There were five members of the Council, three of the male gender and two of the female. Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry river bed. They were old. They seemed older than the marble of the Temple of the World Council. They sat before us and they did not move. And we saw no breath to stir the folds of their white togas. But we knew that they were alive, for a finger of the hand of the oldest rose, pointed to us, and fell down again. This was the only thing which moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move as they said: "Fuck Boy."  
  
We felt the cords of our neck grow tight as our head rose higher to look upon the faces of the Council, and we were happy. We knew we had been guilty, but now we had a way to atone for it. We would accept our Life Mandate, and we would work for our brothers, gladly and willingly, and we would erase our sin against them, which they did not know, but we knew. So we were happy, and proud of ourselves and of our victory over ourselves. We raised our right arm and we spoke, and our voice was the clearest, the steadiest voice in the hall that day, and we said:  
  
"The will of our brothers be done."  
  
And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons.  
  
So we went into the Home of the Fuck Boys. It is a grey house on a narrow street. There is a sundial in its courtyard, by which the Council of the Home can tell the hours of the day and when to ring the bell. When the bell rings, we all arise from our beds. Then we go to work in the streets of the City. In five hours, when the sun is high, we return to the Home and we eat our midday meal, for which one- half hour is allowed. Then we go to work again. In five hours, the shadows are blue on the pavements, and the sky is blue with a deep brightness which is not bright. We come back to have our dinner, which lasts one hour. Then the bell rings and we walk in a straight column to one of the City Halls, for the Social Meeting. Other columns of men arrive from the Homes of the different Trades. The candles are lit, and the Councils of the different Homes stand in a pulpit, and they speak to us of our duties and of our brother men. As we service our brothers, we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, and the Hymn of Equality, and the Hymn of the Collective Spirit. The sky is a soggy purple when we return to the Home. The moths beat against the street lanterns. We go to our beds and we sleep, till the bell rings again.  
  
Thus have we lived each day of four years, until two springs ago when our crime happened. Thus must all men live until they are forty. At forty, they are worn out. At forty, they are sent to the Home of the Useless, where the Old Ones live. The Old Ones do not work, for the State takes care of them. They sit in the sun in summer and they sit by the fire in winter. They do not speak often, for they are weary. The Old Ones know that they are soon to die. Their vitality is sustained through continual use of Fuck Boys. When a miracle happens and some live to be forty-five, they are the Ancient Ones, and the children stare at them when passing by the Home of the Useless. Such is to be our life, as that of all our brothers and of the brothers who came before us.  
  
Such would have been our life, had we not committed our crime which changed all things for us. And it was our curse which drove us to our crime. We had been a good Fuck Boy and like all our brother Fuck Boys, save for our cursed wish to know. We looked too long at the stars at night, and at the long sturdy trees. And when we performed our services in the yard of the Home of the Scholars, we accumulated used prophylactics, so we carried them to the City Cesspool. And then we made the discovery.


End file.
